Rob Oller commentary: World Series beards are more than a sideshow

Outside of Boston and St. Louis, where baseball is bred into the bones, the World Series has attracted attention more for the beards than for what has happened at the ballparks.

Rob Oller, The Columbus Dispatch

Outside of Boston and St. Louis, where baseball is bred into the bones, the World Series has attracted attention more for the beards than for what has happened at the ballparks.

The casual baseball fan has tuned in not because Red Sox catcher David Ross is a solid backstop, but because he resembles a younger version of Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty. Likewise, Mike Napoli’s beard, unearthed from Gettysburg and deserving of its own roster spot, is more famous than the Boston first baseman who wears it.

Is this a bad thing?

Purists might resent the hyping of the current hirsute pursuit, thinking it has turned the October Classic into an inappropriate sideshow. But baseball, and sports in general, has a long history of reflecting and influencing American pop culture.

Babe Ruth impacted not only the Bronx but Broadway. Red Sox owner Harry Frazee allegedly financed the show My Lady Friends — later to become No, No, Nanette — with some of the $125,000 he received from selling Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1919

The Bambino soon established the first personalized plate theatrics with his “called shot” and similar showy traditions have continued to influence culture through the decades.

Today’s fist bump — a staple of all sorts of major and minor celebrations, athletic and otherwise — is linked to Orel Hershiser, the former major league pitcher who first broke it out with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the early 1990s. Tiger Woods then turned the bump into a pump.

In football, there was the Ickey Shuffle, the touchdown dance belonging to former Bengals running back Ickey Woods and mimicked by millions of youngsters in their backyards — and the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl Shuffle in 1985.

Regarding fashion, Nike attracted Michael Jordan, who impacted Nike, which in turn impacted teen buying habits. Hair styles? The long braids escaping from the backs of football helmets undoubtedly have inspired others to copy the look.

Even baseball facial hair is nothing new. The Oakland Athletics of the early- and mid-1970s popularized the mustache as a staple of American grooming. The Red Sox, and to a lesser extent the Cardinals, simply have added chin hair to the historical record.

And don’t forget about hockey, where the playoff beard has been incorporated into everyday life. More than one soon-to-be-father has refused to shave until the baby is born.

But these World Series beards do more than allow silly Civil War references. They serve the important purpose of marking time.

Robert J. Thompson, a noted Syracuse University professor specializing in the study of popular culture, cannot say whether “Battle of the Beards” has buried baseball down into the story. But he is positive that the shaving boycotts will act as a memory stimulant.

“Whether baseball suffers or benefits from it, the fact is that players have beards this year, which dates this World Series in your mind, which is kind of useful,” Thompson said. “If you’re a casual fan, you remember, ‘This is the one with the beards.’ It tells you where in history’s (timeline) it is.”

The beehive beneath Napoli’s chin also will map out what was happening at the time outside of sports.

“You watch these games (on tape) in the future and it reminds you, it tells you Duck Dynasty was on. An anthropologist could do a lot with those beards,” Thompson said.

Personally, I’m tired of the beards. But that probably has more to do with fatigue toward Boston sports in general. I appreciate how the Red Sox have rallied around their hairy faces, using them to build camaraderie. But I’m more interested in whether “biker beards” will begin trending as a fad outside of sports.

“Pop culture is one big pie chart, and sports is a big chunk that infiltrates all other parts."

Yeah, well, most of us don’t want the mountain-man look to begin showing up in office cubicles anytime soon. Fortunately, we should be safe because, when it comes to pop culture, what’s hair today is gone tomorrow.

Rob Oller is a sports reporter for The Dispatch.

roller@dispatch.com

@rollerCD

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